Denver police believe a group that included two juvenile gang members out on a night of car theft and troublemaking killed Sudanese refugee Jimma Reat.

No arrests have been made in the case. Police are asking for the public’s help in locating witnesses or others involved in the shooting in the early hours of April 1.

Reat, 25, was shot in the back blocks from West 10th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard in Denver, where he and other members of his family were taunted by a group of Latino men driving a stolen Jeep who threw bottles and waved a gun at their vehicle.

After the altercation, Reat and his family went to their apartment in Wheat Ridge. A 911 operator told them to return to Denver, where they were fired upon by the same group that had attacked them moments before.

“Witnesses say there were four or five parties in the vehicle,” Detective Randy Denison said of the suspects’ car. “What we are looking for is to identify the other possible occupants.”

The occupants of the Jeep didn’t flash gang signs or tout any gang affiliation, but the criminal history of the two teens now suspected suggests they are gang members, Denison said. He said he didn’t know whether one of them — or someone else in the Jeep — fired the fatal shot.

Before the shooting, the occupants of the Jeep threw beer bottles at the rented Dodge Charger that Reat, two family members and a friend were riding in after spending the night at a club and at a relative’s house.

The bottles led police to believe the assailants had been in a liquor store before the shooting.

“We are asking if you work or went to a liquor store along the corridor and you observed a group of kids come in and possibly shoplifting,” let police know, said Cmdr. Ron Saunier, head of the Major Crimes Unit.

Because they are juveniles, an adult could have bought the beer for them.

Police located the stolen Jeep on South Ogden Street, near Porter Adventist Hospital, miles from where Reat was shot at West 29th Avenue just east of Sheridan Boulevard. Whoever stole the Jeep was carrying tools needed to bypass the ignition, Denison said.

“I suppose they could have been out riding around with someone, but they would have to be ready to steal a vehicle, so my guess would be they were out stealing cars,” Denison said.

There also is a good chance that the suspects harassed other drivers, Saunier said. “Their behavior was such that they probably had interactions with other motorists.”

Police don’t believe road rage led to the shooting.

Reat and his companions didn’t see the Jeep until it pulled up beside them at a light. “There was not much conversation. The brothers say these guys just pull up beside them, and they think they are just saying, ‘Hello,’ and Jimma and his friends just kind of wave. They just think these guys are just giving them the nod,” Denison said.

One of Reat’s brothers, Gatwec Dengpathot, 29, said members of Denver’s Sudanese community are afraid that Reat’s killer will elude capture.

“There is a lot of pain in the Sudanese community now. We still feel like (Reat) died and the guy that killed him is not brought to justice yet. We would love to see the police tell the whole Sudanese community the guy that killed your brother has been caught and now will face the wrath of justice,” Dengpathot said.